It was only a matter of time before the return volley appeared. The Democrats first dismiss the Freedom Fund as a “Grand Rapids-based astroturf group propped up by Dick DeVos in order to spread anti-worker messages…” And the release went downhill from there.

The mouthpiece for the Dems offered up Doug Sedenquist as the first unsavory character on the Republican side. The state GOP official was subject of reports that he “threatened himself and his estranged wife with a high-powered rifle in Wisconsin…”

Then they turned to GOP Chair Bobby Schostak whose “brother received a bailout in the form of a retroactive state law” that saved him from a $2.4 million judgment. There was no criminal wrongdoing but the D’s quoted a GOP lawmaker who found the bill “one of the more disturbing” of the session so far.

Then came the inevitable swipe at House GOP Speaker Jase Bolger and his sidekick former Rep. Roy Schmidt for their involvement in the now infamous “fake candidate” plot. File this one under “easy-pickings” but when you are doing a political hit piece, you toss everything into the soup,

And the D’s save the best for last, hauling out a $120,000 fine that Gateway paid to the federal government for “screening out qualified women at a much higher rate” in the job selection process. Oh yeah, a guy named Rick Snyder was running the computer firm at the time as the Dems suggest discrimination was at the root of it all.

And this is only August.

This is the silly season, where both political parties try to soften up the other guy, and sometimes take liberty with their charges and counter charges to score a point or two.

Now that both sides have had their fun, on to more substantive debates.

That'll be the day.

Watch "Off the Record with Tim Skubick" online anytime at video.wkar.org